This invention relates to a vehicle safety restraint system and more particularly to a child seat belt system for use in an automobile.
Young children are generally restrained in an automobile, by government decree, in specially designed forwardly or rearwardly facing seats that are, in turn, secured to the regular vehicle seat using manufacturer installed seat belts. Children who have outgrown the conventional forward facing booster seat are, however, often too small to use the regular, adult sized, seat belt system safely and there is, therefore a need for a specially designed seat belt system for such intermediately sized children to use while sitting on the regular vehicle seat.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat belt assembly for use by children that can be readily installed on, and removed from, a vehicle seat and that is independent of the conventional, manufacturer installed seat belt system.
By one aspect of this invention there is provided a child safety restraint system for use in a vehicle provided with a seat having a back portion and a seat portion, comprising: a first Y-shaped elongated flexible belt member having a single first end and a bifurcated second end; said first end being provided with a first portion of a releasable snap fastening, and each part of said second end terminating in a closed loop; said first end of said first Y-shaped belt being adapted to pass over said back portion of said seat and depend downwardly therefrom;
a second Y-shaped flexible belt member having a single first end and a bifurcated second end; said first end being adapted to pass between said back portion and said seat portion of said seat and provided with a complementary second portion of said snap fastening adapted to releasably engage with said first portion on said first Y-shaped belt; said bifurcated end terminating in a pair of first portions of a releasable snap fastening; and
a flexible elongated lap belt member adapted to pass through said closed loops in said first Y-shaped belt and provided with complementary second portions of a releasable snap fastening at each end thereof adapted to releasably engage with respective ones of said pair of first portions of snap fastenings on said second Y-shaped belt member.